Charlie Adam: Why the Midfielder Has Been a Complete Flop at Liverpool

Charlie Adam has been a mystery at Liverpool. His injury status as of late has not helped his image at Anfield.

As early as January 2011, Adam's name was being mentioned in a possible move to Anfield. The move from Blackpool (who had been relegated) was not completed until the summer transfer window.

Blackpool had hoped to retain Adam's services, but he never backed down from his transfer request. In the summer transfer window, Adam completed his dream transfer.

With him came the expectations of Liverpool supporters. The club had set their sights on bringing Champions League football back to Anfield for the first time since the 2009-10 season. Adam was supposed to play a huge role in that resurgence.

In 35 appearances in all competitions for the Reds, Adam has only two goals. In contrast, when he was with Blackpool, who was still in the Premier League at the time, he scored 13 goals in 36 games in all competitions in 2010-11. The year prior was even better for Adam. He scored 19 goals in 47 games for Blackpool in 2009-10 when they were promoted to the Premier League.

One of Adam's listed strengths is his passing. His style is listed as incisive, direct and classy, and he's supposed to be a midfielder who can dictate the tempo of the game (some Liverpool supporters are laughing at that last one).

Perhaps his weaknesses are best summed up by The Kop blog on Liverpool's website. "He cannot run, needs endless amount of time on the ball to make a pass, and commits silly fouls due to his lack of awareness and pace."

Playing for a big club like Liverpool may be part of the problem for Adam. He does have a trend of losing his focus. That is one reason why he commits "silly fouls."

Another contributing factor to his silly fouls is his poor tackling ability. If more proof is needed that Adam is a poor tackler, just ask Gareth Bale.

Adam is now sidelined for the rest of the season with lateral ligament damage in his knee. What made this somewhat worse for Liverpool was the fact that Lucas Leiva suffered a season-ending injury earlier.

The Reds are not exactly in dire straights without him. Kenny Dalglish has options in the middle of the park such as Jay Spearing, Jordan Henderson, Jonjo Shelvey and even Dirk Kuyt. Steven Gerrard's role has become even more important as a result. The lack of depth on the bench has been a serious issue as of late.

Before suffering the season-ending injury, Adam was struggling. During the penalty shootout in the Carling Cup Final, Adam missed his penalty hideously. He got underneath it, and had he been playing American football or rugby, he would have scored three points. That is how bad it was.

Liverpool supporters like to debate who is to blame in a circle between Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Adam for poor play this season.

It's hard to criticize Carroll and Downing. Considering that Downing is a winger who is supposed to cross the ball into the penalty area and because Carroll is supposed to be at the end of those crosses. The point is that Carroll and Downing are not complete flops like Adam has been all season.

Regardless of who is to blame, there is no doubt that Adam been a flop and he has no one else to blame but himself for his extremely bad form.

Whenever Adam returns to football, whether it is this season or next, his days at Liverpool will be limited to the bench or the transfer list if he does not find the form he had that got Blackpool promoted to the Premier League.